When putting in the opening round of the $1.5 million World Cup here at the Mines Resort today, Tiger Woods believes he will have a failsafe way of knowing his head is perfectly positioned. Drops of sweat from his forehead will be landing directly on the ball.
This is a measure of the challenge facing 64 competitors from 32 countries, for whom the normal five-and-a-half-hour rounds in this tournament will become especially testing in the suffocating humidity. But the Malaysians seem to be prepared for all eventualities, even to the extent of having a frogman standing by.
His presence, presumably, is in the event of some overwrought competitor, or spectator, throwing themselves into the 150-acre lake which dominates this luxurious complex. And we are informed that other health problems will be cared for by two surgeons, a cardiologist, three physicians and eight medical officers, supported by nursing staff.
So, for any non-swimmer with a heart condition, this is certainly the place to be over the weekend.
It has also proved to be a splendid source of golf equipment for impoverished Jamaican professional Ralph Campbell. Pictured in this newspaper yesterday, he is comfortably rounded at 21st 7lb, and will be playing today in training shoes. But proper golf shoes are on the way and Dunlop have come to his aid by supplying him with four dozen golf balls and a bag and gloves with a total value of $300.
"I may be the biggest man here but I'm also the poorest and I can certainly use the help," he said. "It's a great pleasure to be playing with all the top guys."
Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, who captured this coveted trophy for Ireland at Kiawah Island in 1997, exchanged greetings with the American team at the entrance to the media centre. "Tiger will only be as good as Mark O'Meara's scoring," said McGinley, who by now is something of an expert on the fluctuations of World Cup fortunes.
And the Irish caddies have also learned fast. During yesterday's pro-am, Dave McNeilly and JP Fitzgerald had local caddies carrying the bags while they concentrated on helping their respective employers, Harrington and McGinley, read the extremely tricky greens.
Both players are taking appropriate precautions to cope with the heat. McGinley will not need reminding of the dangers of dehydration, given his experience in this event in Puerto Rico in 1994.
That was when McGinley, in between rounds, had to be hospitalised in San Juan where he had to be rehydrated with two litres of liquid transfused by a saline drip.
According to England's Mark James, good strikers of the ball will prosper around the Mines, where he described the greens as "a nightmare". In the latter context, Harrington seems to be relishing the challenge, but his partner has clearly been struggling lately with the blade and missed the cut in Taiwan last weekend.
Meanwhile, it's difficult to think of Woods and O'Meara as debutantes this week, given that they have won four major championships between them. But they will, in fact, be making their first appearance in the event which is Woods's fourth successive tournament in four different countries on three continents. And he appears to be bearing up remarkably well.
But he complained: "It's very hot out there - so hot that every hole seems like an uphill walk." So, even in the presence of a former King of Malaysia as one of his playing partners, he wasn't sorry that the pro-am finished prematurely.
